Wednesday, July 21, 2010

A Man, a Plan, a Fan(tastic) new intern



He's young, ambitious, and bearded - what more can you ask for? After graduating from American University, Zac moved to the Old Oak Homestead in Chapel Hill, North Carolina as part of the
WWOOF program. Camera-in-hand and typing when he could, his five-hour work day allowed for plenty of interesting stories that he has already entertained us with. So without further adieu, allow me to introduce the newest member of our production team, Zac Kind.


Hello everyone, I've come to Future Weather after experiencing life working and living on an organic farm. It's been a bit of a culture shock going from a farm to a city, but I have been welcomed with open arms by the Future Weather team.

As Dan mentioned, I spent the last month and a half working on an organic farm in Chapel Hill, as part of a not-for-profit work exchange program called World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF. We worked four to five hours a day on a sustainable vegetable garden in exchange for room and board provided by our host, Barbara Trent. Barbara, a documentary filmmaker, directed Panama Deception, a powerful film about the 1989 US war with Panama. it won the Oscar for Best Documentary film in 1993. Barbara brought this 7-acre land 10 years ago and started with a half-acre vegetable garden. She's now expanded this into a 2-acre plot and it's still growing.

Working as a "wwoofer" was a revelatory learning experience, and I wholeheartedly recommend it. It is great to live on a farm for awhile and work with your hands, watching life grow right in front of your eyes. There's something magical about working with the soil every day, then all of the sudden things start to sprout from the ground and you're rewarded with fresh food that you can just break off and eat. We harvested kale, gold tomatoes, squash, carrots, onions, sweet peas, and bees' honey.

We extracted five gallons of organic honey! I was really excited to be a part of this process because not only is local honey delicious, it's really good for you as well. If your allergies are bad during the summer months, take a teaspoon of honey a day and your allergies will go down immensely. The bees eat pollen and then you eat the honey, and little by little your immune system breaks down the pollen which helps you build a high tolerance for it. Not a bad trade-off if you ask me.

1 comment:

Kale 8 said...

The bearded farmer issuer interesting, great blog cant wait to hear about the film!!!!